The Idaho County With an Orphaned Parking Meter

I thought it was time to revive this story when an old post popped up in my Facebook feed. From the Owyhee County Historical Museum, which is located in one of the few buildings in Murphy. The county’s only parking meter isn’t a money maker. It’s a sign of ingenuity. I’m posting below a story from KTVB TV, which chronicled the history of the meter.

A fence outside the Owyhee County Courthouse had a gate often blocked when people parked there. With free parking all around the area, nobody was going to pay for a spot. It cleared entry into the building!

Which is why it’s the only meter in Owyhee County. And has been in place since Eisenhower was President.

There are only 12,000 people scattered across the huge land mass that constitutes the county, but the place is replete with history. It’s the site of a massacre. A group of pioneers headed west was attacked along the Snake River. There’s an old off-the-grid hotel that is reportedly haunted. Oh, and a privately operated museum that remembers a century and a half of history in the region.

A map won’t show you much, but you could spend a week just looking at some of the county’s breathtaking scenery, and there are numerous campgrounds and great places for fishing. There’s neighboring Bruneau Canyon. Oh, and after sunset you can see an unobscured night sky. Periodically you may also hear a jet roaring over on a training mission from Mountain Home Air Force Base.